"Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood."

"A good End cannot sanctifie evil Means; nor must we ever do Evil, that Good may come of it."

"Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders, than from the arguments of its opposers."

"True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment."

"All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men. It reveals secrets, is quarrelsome, lascivious, impudent, dangerous and bad."

"Believe nothing against another but on good authority; and never report what may hurt another, unless it be a greater hurt to some other to conceal it."

"Man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments."

"The world is divided into two kinds of people, those who spend a great deal of time saving money, and those who spend a great deal of money saving time."

"Men are punished by their sins, not for them."

"It is difficult to live in the present, ridiculous to live in the future, and impossible to live in the past. Nothing is as far away as one minute ago."

"If children grew up according to early indications, we should have nothing but geniuses."

"Enmeshed in the details of life, a diary rarely talks about the important things. It turns out that most of life happens off-screen."